Exemplary embodiments herein relate to a door opening prevention device for preventing a vehicle door from accidentally opening during an impact, particularly during a vehicle dynamic roll-over event causing deformation of the vehicle door.
Manual operation of a door latch of a vehicle is usually through the use of a door handle connected by a cable or link rod to a latch actuator. Safety standards generally require that vehicle doors do not open accidentally upon impact of the vehicle, or, for example, if the vehicle rolls or spins following a side impact. To prevent the door handle from opening the door during a crash condition, one known approach has been to provide a counterweight or counterbalance adjacent the door handle. The counterweight acts on movement of the door handle to prevent the door handle from opening the door during or after vehicle impact. Typically, the counterweight is rotationally coupled to the door handle using a spring arrangement, so that inertial movement of the door handle is countered by corresponding inertial movement of the counterweight, in the event of abnormal accelerations of the vehicle. Due to the normal orientation of door handles on a vehicle, this would normally be relevant when the vehicle suffers a side impact. One problem with known counterweight designs is that during a vehicle roll-over event causing deformation of the door handle, the inertia of the mass of the counterweight may be insufficient to prevent the door from opening.
Alternative solutions have included providing the latch actuator with internal inertia-responsive levers or other components, so that the latch actuator is locked against opening movements when the latch actuator experiences undue acceleration in a specific predetermined axis. These arrangements introduce complexity and cost into the latch actuators, and moreover, by their very nature, they cannot be incorporated retrospectively into latch actuators of existing design.